Spice Tour - Zanzibar

While visiting Zanzibar we went on a spice-tour where I learned a lot about many different types of spices :)

Some of the spices and foods which we saw through our spice tour were banana, mango, pineapple, star fruit, papaya, jack fruit, lemon, lime, avocado, tapioca plants, palm oil trees, indian almond tree, cocoa trees, coffee plants, cardemon plants, black pepper, ginger, nutmeg, turmeric, vanilla, cinnamon. cloves and lemongrass. In addition we saw the ylang ylang tree, which makes perfume, and the lipstick tree.

 

         Coffee beans                                                 Nutmeg

 

             Limes                                                      Jack fruit

Some of these are actually also used for other purposes than what we would commonly use them for and therefore go beyond just being a spice. Our guide explained how black pepper is used to increase the milk production of new mothers, especially if it’s mixed in with octopus or stingray soup. Turmeric can be used as an antibiotic or antiseptic when it’s mixed with water. This can clean wounds and also be drunken if one has an upset stomach. The tomatoe weed plant is said to be good for those who have asthma if one mixes the tomatoe together with some honey. The leaves of the plant are also used for stopping heavy nose bleeding.

                     

           Pineapple                                                   Cocoa

Our guide told us that, unfortunately due to not having the right equipment and factories not being maintained, many of these spices and products that Zanzibar offers are not being taken advantage of and processed. For instance, their many rubber trees are being exported because they don’t have a factory there to process them themselves. Also, the sugar factory there has been closed for 16 years already, but our guide told us it’s being invested in now so hopefully it will soon be up and running again. They do grow their own coffee, but not enough so they also import it from the mainland. Due to no good irrigation system they do not grow their own rice. They actually import most of their rice from Thailand – which sadly is cheaper than importing it from mainland Tanzania or Uganda!

 

             Cloves                                           Our basket of samples

Their main export are actually cloves – which originated from Indonesia and introduced to Zanzibar by the Arabs. Unfortunately, however, as the government decides the price of the cloves, which is set to rather low, many people don’t bother too much for picking them. It was so great to experience all of these different types of spices on our tour, but sad to learn that most of them are either not being processed on the island itself or not being used at all.

                                Different types of spices

Throughout our tour the guides’ local assistant gave us samples of many of the different spices and also made jewelry out og leaves for my sister and I. For my dad he made him a hat and tie. Check out the pictures :)

                      

After the tour we had a local lunch consisting of pilau rice which is spiced rice, coconut sauce, banana stew and smoked fish. It was very good, I actually had seconds!

                                           At lunch :) 

 

Ending this blog with a picture of the many beautiful palm trees on Zanzibar: